el

Noun (1)

el (plural els)

1. The name of the Latin script letter L/l.
   • The word length, which contains only four sounds l e ng th, is usually spell'd thus, el ee en gee tee aitch.1773 October, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged

Noun (2)

el (plural els)

1. (US) An elevated railway, especially for specific systems such as the metro in Chicago (informal)
   • The main section of the Sixth Avenue El from Morris Street to Ninth Avenue and 53rd Street shut down on December 4, 1938.2012, Roger P. Roess, Gene Sansone, The Wheels That Drove New York, page 294

Numeral

el

1. The cardinal number occurring after dek and before do in a duodecimal system. Written ↋, decimal value 11.

Article

el

1. (Internet, humorous, informal) The (sometimes where "the" would not occur in normal English).
   • "[…] A sister of Joseph Gerard […] was found unconscious on the kitchen floor by the family cook early this morning. […]"
     […] What leads could they have, if the old lady was el zonko?2007, Richard Bachman, Blaze, page 125

Noun (3)

el (plural els)

1. The name of the Cyrillic script letter Л / л

Noun (4) capitalized: EL

EL (countable and uncountable, plural ELs)

1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of electroluminescence.
2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of encephalitis lethargica (von Economo disease, sleepy sickness).

Proper noun (1) capitalized: EL

EL

1. (abbreviation, initialism, Java programming language) Initialism of Expression Language.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: El

IPA/ɛl/

El

1. Any of several major ancient Near East deities, including the supreme god of the Canaanite religion, but especially the supreme Hebrew God.
   • […]who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,[…]1956, Allen Ginsberg, “Howl”, in Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets Series), City Lights Books, →OCLC, page 9

Proper noun (3) capitalized: El

IPA/ɛl/

El (plural Els)

1. (slang) Any one of several specific elevated railways.
   • The Washington Street El was torn down in 1987.
   • Known colloquially as the "El," the elevated lines constituted the earliest attempt to remove urban passenger traffic from the streets.1955 July, “The Last Elevated Line in New York”, in Railway Magazine, page 444

Proper noun (4) capitalized: El

IPA/ɛl/

El

1. A unisex given name, often used as a nickname.
   • Ever since El Martinez started asking to be called by the gender-neutral pronouns “they/them” in the ninth grade, they have fielded skepticism in a variety of forms and from a multitude of sources about what it means to identify as nonbinary.2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2019